7.13 percent voter turnout recorded in Srinagar LS bypoll

14 Апреля 2017

At the Kralpora polling station on the outskirts of Srinagar, which was hit by the violence, not a single vote had been cast till 10 am. With Thursday's numbers, the total voter turnout in the Srinagar Assembly election now stands at 7.13 percent.

Chief Electoral Officer of J-K, Shantmanu reviewed the arrangements for the re-poll at a high level meeting convened in Srinagar on Wednesday.

The repolling had been ordered at these polling stations by the EC following large scale violence during Sunday's polls for the prestigious seat. "Whenever an election takes place, 100-200 polling booths see zero voter turnout", he said.

It may be recalled that the polls on Sunday had attracted widespread violence, in which, eight stone pelters were killed when security forces opened fire on them.

Only 344 voters of the 34,169 eligible persons cast their votes across all polling stations till 10 am, officials said in Srinagar.

Witnesses said clashes erupted in Beerwah town in the evening after security forces started withdrawing at the end of re-poll.

Voting in the constituency was otherwise scheduled for April 12. They showed up and left afterwards.

The NC has sought certain safeguards to uphold the integrity of the democratic process, a party spokesman said here.

Seven candidates are in the fray for the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat but the contest is mainly between the National Conference's Farooq Abdullah and the PDP's Nazir Ahmad Khan. Three hundred police and paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel have been deployed.

Shantmanu refrained from speculating on the prospects for the postponed bypolls in Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency.